Chapter 6 DISCOVERIES
I knew that I was going to need a job as soon as I arrived in Nashville, so Celia helped me get hired at the Holiday Inn, also on Briley Parkway. I waited tables for the breakfast shift. The drummer and I were finished by this time, and I was a single, vulnerable young woman again. One day I met one of the room service waiters and we started dating. I thought that I could handle dating and focusing on my music, but before long I was spending all my time with him. I could see that it was beginning to fracture my relationship with Matt.
On top of everything else, Papa Floyd passed away in November of 1991. That just about did us in, because we were so close to him. Grandpa Evans had also passed away shortly before we moved to Nashville. We were just as close to him. We had to make the eight-hour drive home for Papa’s funeral, and when we got back to Nashville, I could tell that something was going on with my brother. He seemed upset with me for having a boyfriend and being distracted (and rightly so), but I could tell he was distracted by something else. What I didn’t know was that after my dad’s divorce from Chris, his older sister, my Aunt Sharon, had been talking to him about joining her religion. She and her family had been in that organization for years. My dad had been going to their meetings and continued to do so after he moved to Dallas. Then one day after Papa’s funeral, Matt told me that he was thinking about moving to Dallas and was curious about my dad’s new religion. He just wasn’t really sure what he believed, so he was exploring. I think the more he and Dad talked about it, the more Matt really wanted to go all-in. While I was being an idiot and spending all my time with the waiter, Matt indeed left Nashville and moved to Dallas to live with my dad.
I was devastated. But looking back, I totally understand it. I blew it. If you really want to do something big with your life, especially in the entertainment world, you have to be willing to sacrifice what others won’t. Like dating the waiter. But at the time I blamed Matt, and I felt like he was abandoning me, and I REALLY hated my dad for influencing him. Matt was my best friend, a twin-like brother who had been playing bass and singing with me since I was four years old. But I let him down when I prioritized my romance with the waiter. When he went to visit Dad in Texas and decided to stay, I had no idea that it would take seven years before we were back together in a band. In that time, my life would change completely.
The waiter and I continued to date. He was in Nashville with two of his brothers and a friend, trying to pursue music as well. They had a band that was kind of an Eagles meets Creedence Clearwater Revival sound. They were all living in a rented duplex near where Matt and I were living. I had a great time hanging out with him and his brothers and just having fun. They are from Oregon, and not long after we started dating, he told me that they were planning to spend the summer out west, doing shows that they had booked. He wanted to know if I wanted to take a road trip and go out there with them for the summer. I thought that sounded like so much fun. So in May of 1992 I packed up my car and we drove across the country. I think we were a caravan of three vehicles. We listened to music and camped on the way to save money. One night I’ll never forget, we stopped in the desert. We set up camp, went to town and got supplies, including lots of beer, and camped with a billion stars all around. We listened to “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by the Eagles over and over again. I was twenty-one and he was twenty-nine, and I was drawn to the fact that he was in music, came from a family of seven kids, like me, and grew up on a farm. Most important, because he was eight years older than me, I thought he would take care of me.
I was excited to arrive in Oregon and meet his two younger sisters and two older brothers. The day we arrived, his youngest sister, who was sixteen at the time, was skipping school and lying out on the roof of their house trying to get her tan started for the summer. I thought she was hilarious and just adorable. In fact, I instantly liked everyone in his family, but his mother did NOT like me. She didn’t know anything about me except that I was not from Oregon, and that meant I might convince her beloved son to live somewhere other than close to home. I thought that was strange, since he was already living far from home in Nashville. I thought once she got to know me she would love me—even though I knew that our ultimate plan was to return to Nashville.
That summer, I accompanied him and his band all over the Willamette Valley and sat in the audience while they performed their four-hour sets. It was NOT easy for me to be a band girlfriend, because I was so used to being on stage, and the waiters soon recognized that and started asking me to get up and sing with them. The crowds went wild, and I started doing more and more singing, until I became a permanent member of the band. I think this caused the rest of the band to resent me a little, but they couldn’t deny the attention we were getting.
Then it dawned on me—we weren’t making plans to go back to Nashville. We were booking more shows. I could tell that he was not in any hurry to leave Oregon. I started pestering him about it, and then out of the blue, with no warning and no ring, he asked me to marry him. I said yes. I know. I know what you’re thinking…
He convinced me that we needed to get jobs and start saving money for the wedding (which I insisted would be in Missouri, in my hometown), and then after we got married, we would move back to Nashville. All in all, we spent three years in Oregon before we finally moved back. I basically told him that I was going and he could come with me or not. I was NOT going to let go of my dream.
Sometime before Matt and I moved to Nashville, before I met the waiter, we met this guy from the Ozarks in Missouri who was a millionaire, and someone told us that we should try to get him to invest in us and our careers. He agreed to sign a three-year contract with us—we’d write songs, and he would pay us each four hundred dollars a month. He had a lawyer in Nashville who told us that we, too, needed a lawyer to protect us in this deal. He suggested that we go see a woman named Brenner Lackey. She was an attorney who practiced music business law. Matt and I immediately loved her. You know when you meet someone and you instantly connect? That was us with Brenner. She helped us negotiate the contract with the millionaire, and then we didn’t see her again until the waiter and I returned to Nashville. During the time we were in Oregon, the millionaire paid for me to go into a studio in Portland and record three or four songs to have as a demo to play for people when I got back to Nashville.
Once back in Music City, I knew that one of the first things I should do was meet up with Brenner to make sure I was all clear of that old contract. She was so excited to hear that I had moved back. I played her my demo and she flipped out. She loved my voice. She also told me that she, too, had recently gotten married, and that her husband was a song plugger. That is a person who works for the big music publishing companies and it’s their job to get clients’ songs recorded by major artists. When a writer completes a song, the publisher hires a great unsigned singer to go into the studio with a band and make a recording of the song. This is called being a “demo singer.” Then the song plugger pitches the song to the record labels in hopes that one of their artists will record it. Brenner’s husband immediately started getting me work as a demo singer. And I hired Brenner to be my manager.
It wasn’t long before word traveled around town. People were saying things like, “Have you heard that new girl Sara Evans?” and “She’s got the ‘countryist’ voice that I’ve heard in years,” and “She’s the real deal.”
Soon I built up a reputation on Music Row as the new cool singer in town. This led to an opportunity to cover a Harlan Howard song, “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail.” Buck Owens co-wrote and had turned that song into a hit back in 1965. Harlan’s publisher wanted Patty Loveless to remake the song, so they hired me to sing the demo. Since Patty Loveless had been one of my idols for years, I knew how to make my voice sound just like hers.
When I walked out of the singing booth, I saw an older man sitting on a couch. I was stunned when I recognized that it was Harlan Howard himself. The man was a legend. He’d written thousands of songs and would eventually be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
“Hey there, little gal. My God, you sound so good!” he said, rising from the couch. “You remind me of Loretta Lynn when she moved to town. I’m Harlan Howard.”
“Yes, sir, I know who you are. I’m honored to meet you,” I said, shaking his hand. “And I’m so glad I didn’t know you were out here until I was done.”
He laughed, then said, “I’m gonna call my friend Renee Bell and tell her that she has to meet you.”
The legendary Harlan Howard
Renee Bell was the head of A&R (Artists & Repertoire) for RCA Records. She was the person who found new artists for the label, helped the artists find songs, and then hooked them up with cowriters. In general, she developed a new artist’s identity. Renee Bell was a power person in Nashville, so to have a lunch meeting with her was a BIG deal.
Brenner and I started brainstorming about what I should say to Renee, and what I should wear. But at this time I had no money and no style, so I chose basic black. The three of us met at the Pancake Pantry in Hillsboro Village on my twenty-fourth birthday. Renee and I immediately hit it off.
“I really like you, everything about you, your look, your personality, and I already know you have an amazing voice,” Renee said at the end of the meeting. “I want you to come in and sing for Joe next week.” Joe was Joe Galante, THE top guy at RCA Records. Everyone in the Nashville music scene knew of him. He had the instinct and the power to take a young talent and turn him or her into a star. He had recently returned to RCA Nashville after being at RCA in New York. He’d signed people like Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, the Judds, Clint Black, Vince Gill, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, and Martina McBride. I couldn’t believe that I was going to sing for him! I didn’t sleep for a week in anticipation. I still had no style and no money, so I took out a credit card at Express in the Green Hills Mall so I could buy an outfit for my big audition.
I decided to sing three songs for Joe. One was a beautiful bluegrassy waltz called “When the Last Curtain Falls”; another was a sad song called “One Girl Cried.” And there was one more that I can’t remember the name of. I was as ready as I could be. When we pulled up for the meeting at the RCA building, we saw a man getting out of a limo ahead of us, and Brenner said, “Oh my gosh, that’s Joe right there.”
At the sight of Joe Galante walking into the building, I suddenly became overwhelmed with the magnitude of what I was about to do and how it could change my life. We waited a few minutes so we wouldn’t run into him in the hallway, because how awkward would that have been? We took the elevator up to the fourth floor, where a receptionist was waiting for us. Brenner walked up and said, “We have Sara Evans here to see Joe Galante.”
The receptionist told us to take a seat, and that Joe would see us in a moment. I was literally sweating, even though it was February.
“Joe is ready for you,” the receptionist said, and led us to a small listening room. Joe had a welcoming smile and friendly blue eyes.
We introduced ourselves, and Joe said, “Well, are you ready to sing?”
I suddenly felt so much gratitude to my mom for putting me on stage when I was four years old, because my instincts as a performer took over.
This was my shot. I took a breath, opened my mouth, and sang my heart out. I caught Renee smiling at Joe as if to say, I told you. Joe grinned back. While I was singing “One Girl Cried,” I actually saw tears in Joe’s eyes, and I knew that I was moving him. I sang my very best in that little room. When I finished, I knew I had killed it. We visited for a few more minutes, and Joe had a big smile on his face the whole time.
“Thank you for coming in,” he said, and then he looked at Brenner. “I’ll give you a call.”
We decided to go to Brenner’s house and open a bottle of wine and wait. By the time we reached her house, there was already a message on her answering machine. She pushed the button, and we heard Joe’s voice. “Brenner, this is Joe Galante. I love Sara!” He pronounced it Saaaa-ra, with a thick New York accent. I loved the way Joe said my name for the next eighteen years.
Brenner and I looked at each other. Then we heard Joe’s stunning next words, “I would like to offer her a seven-album deal.”
I’m sure there were more details to that message, but after I heard “seven-album deal,” all I did was scream for the next thirty minutes. Later I heard this was one of the biggest deals anyone had signed in Nashville, maybe ever. And even if it wasn’t, it felt that way to me! We literally could not believe it.
And just like that, my career took off.
Everything changed after that. Right away, I quit my job and we hired one of the best music attorneys out of LA, a guy named Gary Gilbert. After several weeks of back-and-forth negotiations, my deal was ready. The label arranged a press conference and had all of the media outlets present when I signed that seven-album deal. With the signing advance from the label, I thought I was rich. I was on cloud nine.
I decided to have Pete Anderson produce my first album. He was Dwight Yoakam’s producer and guitar player, and together they created a unique sound that was so musically cool to me. It was West Coast hillbilly country, and I loved it!
We packed up and moved to LA after a few months of cowriting and gathering songs with Renee Bell’s help. The album turned out awesome—we all felt it. It bordered on hillbilly country, had a Patsy Clinesque vibe and featured a song I cowrote with Aimee Mayo and Ron Harbin called “Three Chords and the Truth.” That was also the title of the album. It came from a famous quote by Harlan Howard, who said a great country song is made up of “three chords and the truth.”
We felt like we had gold in our hands.
However, what I’d soon find out was that the hardest part of the music industry wasn’t getting a record deal, like I’d always believed. I quickly learned that for country singers, getting the deal was the easy part. Getting played on country radio was much, much harder. At that time, you couldn’t become famous without being heard on the radio, and believe me, the program directors never let you forget that fact. It’s different today, with the Internet and Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora, etc. In 1997, country radio was the only mainstream outlet to get your music heard.
After the album was finished, we set about getting it played on country radio. The process started with a radio tour, during which I traveled with a promotion staff from the label by bus, private jet, or rental car to nearly every radio station in America. While there, I played my new music, introduced myself on air, went to dinner with the station executives or took them to lunch, performed free shows, and really did almost anything they wanted in exchange for spins on their station. It was very much like a political campaign, and I came to realize that country radio held all the power in determining the success of my career.
For all of my years of working hard on the farm or performing late into the night at honky-tonk bars while still in school, I never knew what being tired was until I went on a radio tour. It’s a different tired from working hard on a farm. On a radio tour, I had to perform, keep a big smile on my face, be ready to laugh and joke and share my music, and always be on.
At the end of the radio tour, we found out that even though my album had garnered tons of critical acclaim, country radio didn’t like Three Chords and the Truth. They flat-out refused to play it, saying it was too country.
Talk about bursting your bubble. After doing all of that work, being so proud of the music, excited about my career launching, I wasn’t getting air play. It was the most disheartening experience of my life—at least at that point.
I think I actually heard a “wah wah wah.”
But if my life had taught me anything at that point, it was to never quit, especially on my music. I knew it was my calling, and being born an optimist, I’ve never stayed down for long. That’s one of the great lessons that getting hit by a car taught me. I knew God had a purpose for me. That’s why he had saved me from death. So there was no way in hell I was going to let country radio beat me. I made a plan to go back and perfect what I would give country radio and force them to play me. I knew I had a partner even bigger than Joe Galante behind me.